SCOTUS conservatives question Biden's student loan plan, drones fly into Russia: 5 Things podcast
On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Supreme Court conservatives skeptical over Biden's student loan plan
Supreme Court conservatives were skeptical on President Joe Biden's student loan plan during oral arguments Tuesday. Paste BN Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze reports. Plus, drones fly deep into Russia, Paste BN National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise gives a green energy check-in, Elizabeth Holmes asks for a prison delay after giving birth to another child, and Venus and Jupiter will light up the night sky.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and this is 5 Things you need to know Wednesday, the 1st of March 2023. Today, Supreme Court oral arguments don't bring much optimism for the future of Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. Plus, drones fly into Russian airspace near Moscow, and we'll hear how well the US is doing when it comes to green energy.
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The Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday surrounding President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, and as Paste BN Supreme Court Correspondent John Fritze told me, the court's conservative majority was skeptical. John, welcome back to 5 Things.
John Fritze:
Thanks for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
So oral arguments took place on Tuesday surrounding President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. What did we learn from these arguments?
John Fritze:
I mean, expectations were not high for the Biden Administration's plan heading into these arguments. I don't think there was a lot of new developments that would give the administration hope that those expectations and predictions were wrong. I think that clearly most of the conservative justices have a lot of skepticism and concern about this plan. There was a lot of discussion about separation of powers, a lot of discussion about whether the Biden administration exceeded its authority under the law. And one of the ways the Biden administration was hoping it might be able to eke out a narrow victory was on this issue of standing, that is whether the plaintiffs involved in the case were the right plaintiffs and were suing for the right reasons. And there was surprisingly little discussion of that and very little from the conservatives.
Taylor Wilson:
So what did we hear from those who argued in favor of Biden's plan?
John Fritze:
The law that the Biden administration has used to execute this plan allows the Department of Education to waive or modify loan provisions. And so yeah, that was interesting. Justice Kavanaugh is always wanted to watch and at one point in the argument he was talking about, "Well look, why not waive? Doesn't waive capture forgiveness?" I thought that was an interesting point coming from him. Of course, he also earlier in the argument talked about that some of the court's finest moments were when it was pushing back on administrative policies enacted during an emergency, and that some of its worst mistakes happened when it didn't do that. Kavanaugh tends to ask good questions of both sides, and I think that was an example of that. But I think to answer your question, what the administration would say and did say is that the law gives the Department of Education the authority and power to do this, and that's why they did it.
Taylor Wilson:
John, I'm curious. This is obviously such a charged issue. What was the turnout like outside the court, of protestors and others, during these arguments?
John Fritze:
So it's important, I should just caveat this by saying I was not outside the court, so it's a little hard for me to answer that completely, but we did have a reporter out there. And from what I could see from the pictures and their reports, it was a pretty good turnout. There were some protests that took place here yesterday. It looked to me like one of the bigger turnouts since the big arguments in the Harvard and UNC affirmative action cases from last fall. So I think it demonstrates that there is a significant amount of interest in this issue, and there'll be a significant amount of disappointment if the court goes the way that I think it's probably going to go.
Taylor Wilson:
So what is next for student loan forgiveness as it pertains to the High Court, and is there a plan B when it comes to loan forgiveness?
John Fritze:
Yeah, that's a great question. So the administration has not wanted to say a word about that, and that makes sense, that they're here at court making the case that this was the law to use and they used it appropriately. They're not going to get into plan B. I don't know that there's much of a plan B. That might be the other reason why they're not talking about it too much. I mean, you can go to Congress, but that seems highly unlikely given the politics at the moment. There are a lot of steps that the Biden administration has taken outside of complete debt forgiveness, ameliorating some of this debt or forgiving certain times of loans and so forth that have not been challenged, but it's hard to see what the plan B is, and they haven't really articulated one. The next step is obviously the opinion. So we'll look for that here in the next few months, and certainly by the end of June.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, John Fritze covers the Supreme Court for Paste BN. Thanks, John.
John Fritze:
Thank you so much.
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Taylor Wilson:
Drones flew deep into Russian territory this week, including one that got within 60 miles of Moscow. The Kremlin says they were launched by Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered amped-up protection at the border. The drones caused no injuries or major damage according to officials, but the incident raises questions about Russia's defense capabilities a year into its war with Ukraine. Ukrainian officials didn't take immediate responsibility for the drones, but they've also avoided responsibility for past strikes. Some more hawkish members of Russia's government have criticized Putin for not delivering a stronger immediate response to the drones.
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New data out this week can tell how the US is doing when it comes to green energy. I spoke with Paste BN National Correspondent Elizabeth Weise to find out more. Beth, always happy to have you back on the show,
Elizabeth Weise:
Always happy to talk about that exciting topic, the energy transition.
Taylor Wilson:
So first off, I just want to get some definitions down for the listeners. When we say green energy, Beth, what are we talking about?
Elizabeth Weise:
We actually did a story on this because it is confusing. So people talk about green energy and renewable energy and carbon-neutral energy. Basically, renewable energy is any electricity that is created by fuel sources that can renew themselves. So the wind, the sun, hydroelectric dams, 'cause the water keeps flowing for the most part, there's a tiny little bit that comes from biomass, which is burning wood or crop waste or garbage, but that's a tiny little bit. So that's renewable energy. There is this other category which is even larger, which is carbon-neutral energy, and that is all the renewable energy, so hydro, solar, wind, plus nuclear, because you don't burn anything. You're not producing carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases.
Taylor Wilson:
So then, where are we as a country on green energy compared with, say, some of these conventional energy sources? I know we have some data out this week that might give us some indicators.
Elizabeth Weise:
Right. Every year, Bloomberg puts out the Sustainable Energy in America Factbook, and it's coming out today. It is yet another record-breaking number for renewable energy. In 2022, 41% of US electricity now comes from carbon-free sources, and a pretty remarkable 23% of our electricity, this is nationally, comes from wind, solar, and hydro. That is a lot because if you go back just to 2012, the figure was 12%, and this is partly because gas was so expensive last year, there was this huge boom in the sale of electric vehicles. And so last year, EVs made up 7% of all the new cars that were sold in the United States, bringing the total number of EVs to just shy of 1 million.
Taylor Wilson:
And so Beth, why do you think this shift is happening? Is this a byproduct of legislation or is this consumers driving this? What's happening here?
Elizabeth Weise:
No, it's all of the above. Just as the US government initially helped make coal and natural gas less expensive, and therefore more available, we've now got programs like that in place to support renewable resources. The other thing though is that renewable energy is just getting really cheap. So on one megawatt hour of electricity, which is how you measure these things, from coal, on average is $42, natural gas is $24. It's probably a little higher right now, these are 2021 figures, which are the latest available. But if you want the same amount of electricity from onshore wind, it can be as cheap as $9 up to $40, and for new solar arrays, it can be $23 to $37 for one megawatt hour. And you think coal used to be how we got the majority of our power, it has been steadily replaced by natural gas because natural gas was cheaper and it burns cleaner, not as clean as renewables, but a whole lot cleaner than coal.
And then you've got consumers who are making the shift. I mean, they're out there buying EVs, and in a lot of states, you can sign up and say, "Great, I want my electricity to be generated by renewables as opposed to coming from natural gas or coal."
Taylor Wilson:
Elizabeth Weise with a clean energy checkup. Always appreciate your insight. Thanks, Beth.
Elizabeth Weise:
Thanks so much.
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Taylor Wilson:
Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced founder of Theranos, is asking to delay her 11-year sentence for felony fraud so she can be at home with her two young children while she appeals the conviction. She was sentenced in November to 135 months in prison for defrauding investors in a failed Silicon Valley startup that claimed it was revolutionizing blood testing. At the time, she had one child and was pregnant with the second. Her motion for release said she's not a flight risk and is motivated to keep complying with the conditions of her release. Holmes is set to report to prison on April 27th, a date already pushed back so that she could give birth to her second child before being incarcerated. And a March 17th hearing has been scheduled on her request to stay out of prison during her appeal. But federal prosecutors say Holmes is in fact a flight risk, citing a one-way plane ticket she booked to Mexico three weeks after her conviction. Prosecutors say she only canceled the trip after they contacted her about the unauthorized flight.
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Get ready for a bright night sky. The two brightest planets in our solar system. Jupiter and Venus, will appear right next to each other tonight into tomorrow. As long as weather conditions allow, it'll be easy to spot the pair, since Venus is the brightest planet in our solar system and third object overall behind the Sun and Moon with Jupiter behind it, according to earthsky.org, Venus is so bright because it's next to Earth in the solar system order, but also because it has thick reflective clouds that reflect sunlight onto us. As for Jupiter, its brightness comes from it simply being the biggest planet in our solar system, despite being much farther from Earth. According to EarthSky, the closest pairing will happen just after sunset tonight. And by looking west, viewers should see Jupiter on the left and Venus on the right.
Thanks for listening to 5 Things. You can find us every morning, right here, wherever you're listening right now. If you have a chance, please drop us a rating and review. And I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from Paste BN.